Chapter (4 Retaining Wall)

CHAPTER FOUR
ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF RETAINING

STRUCTURE
DEFINITION
Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for

supporting a soil mass laterally to provide lateral stability.
COMMON TYPES OF RETAINING
STRUCTURE
Conventional retaining walls can generally be classified

into the following types:
1. Gravity retaining walls
2. Cantilever retaining walls
3. Counterfort retaining walls
4. Buttress walls
5. Semi-gravity retaining walls
1. GRAVITY RETAINING WALLS
• Are constructed with plain concrete or stone masonry.

• They depend for stability on their own weight and any
soil resting on the masonry.
• This type of construction is not economical for high
walls( walls > 6m high).
2. CANTILEVER RETAINING WALLS
• Are made of reinforced concrete that consists of a thin stem

and a base slab.
• This type of wall is economical to a height of about 8 m a
cantilever retaining wall under construction
3. COUNTERFORT RETAINING WALLS
• Are also made of reinforced concrete material

• At regular intervals they consists thin vertical concrete
brackets known as counterforts that tie the wall and the
base slab together behind the face of the wall.
• The purpose of the counterforts is to reduce the shear and
the bending moments.
OTHER TYPES
4. BUTTRESS WALLS - Same as counterfort except that the

vertical brackets are on the opposite sides
5. SEMI-GRAVITY WALL - In many cases, a small amount of
steel may be used for the construction of gravity walls,
thereby minimizing the size of wall sections.
FORCES ON A RETAINING WALLS
The forces that should be considered in the design of retaining walls

include:
i. Active and passive earth pressures
ii. Dead weight including the weight of the wall and the portion of
soil mass that is considered to act on the retaining structure.
iii. Surcharge including live loads, if any
iv. Water pressure, if any
v. Contact pressure under the base of the structure
• The active and passive earth pressures should be calculated using
the appropriate theories.
Question
What are this earth pressure theories?
FORCES ON A RETAINING WALLS…
PROPORTIONING OF RETAINING WALLS
• The usual approach in proportioning the retaining wall is to assign

tentative dimensions and then check for the overall stability of the
structure.
• If the stability checks yield undesirable results, the sections can be
changed and rechecked
• Based on experience the common proportions for gravity and
cantilever is shown in the figure below
• For counterfort retaining walls, the general proportion of the stem
and the base slab is the same as for cantilever walls. However, the
counterfort slabs may be about 0.3 m thick and spaced at center-to-
center distances of 0.3H to 0.7H.
PROPORTIONING…
STABILITY OF RETAINING WALLS
A retaining wall may fail in any of the following ways:

• It may overturn about its toe
• It may slide along its base.
• It may fail due to the loss of bearing capacity of the soil
supporting the base.
• It may undergo deep-seated shear failure.
• It may go through excessive settlement.
Buzz activity(10min)
What could be the reason for the above failures?
STABILITY…
OVERTURNING STABILITY
OVERTURNING…
SLIDING STABILITY
SLIDING STABILITY…
BEARING CAPACITY STABILITY
• The vertical pressure transmitted to the soil by the base slab of the
retaining wall should be checked against the ultimate bearing capacity
of the soil.
• The nature of variation of the vertical pressure transmitted by the base
slab into the soil that and are the maximum and the minimum pressures
occurring at the ends of the toe and heel sections, respectively.
• The magnitudes of and can be determined in the following manner:
• The sum of the vertical forces acting on the base slab is and the
horizontal force is Let
• be the resultant force. The net moment of these forces about point
BEARING CAPACITY STABILITY…
QUESTION
What shall we do If a retaining wall is fail by

1. Sliding failure?
2.Overturning failure?
3. Bearing capacity failure?
CASE STUDIES
NEXT SESSION
• Example on Design of Retaining Structure
To be continued…

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CHAPTER FOUR

ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF RETAINING

Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for

Conventional retaining walls can generally be classified

• Are constructed with plain concrete or stone masonry.

• Are made of reinforced concrete that consists of a thin stem

• Are also made of reinforced concrete material

4. BUTTRESS WALLS - Same as counterfort except that the

The forces that should be considered in the design of retaining walls

• The usual approach in proportioning the retaining wall is to assign

A retaining wall may fail in any of the following ways:

What shall we do If a retaining wall is fail by

• Example on Design of Retaining Structure

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